Photo by Frank Busch on Unsplash
- Hey, Jeff Bezos: I work for Amazon – and I’m protesting against your firm’s climate inaction
Since late last year, a group of workers within Amazon have been organizing to push the company to radically reduce its carbon emissions. Yesterday, they announced a major new action: on 20 September, Amazon workers around the world will walk out of their offices to join the Global Climate Strike. So far, more than 1,000 workers have pledged to participate. The organizers have three demands. They want the company to commit to zero emissions by 2030, to have zero custom cloud computing contracts with fossil fuel companies and to spend zero dollars on funding climate-denying lobbyists and politicians.
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/sep/10/jeff-bezos-amazon-climate-strike-aecj
- Dozens of Google employees say they were retaliated against for reporting harassment
After the retaliation document began circulating internally in late April, Google employees continued to use internal listservs to share similar retaliation cases related to sexual harassment and discrimination. In one anonymous mailing list dedicated to discussing mental health, at least seven stories about retaliation were shared in just the past few months, according to a source.
Since many employees are reluctant to report HR violations through official channels, they have turned to anonymous platforms like these mailing lists for communicating with their colleagues. But some unofficial platforms for candid discussions, such as a previously employee-run newsletter for sharing complaints, are now being overseen by HR, which sources say is making matters worse.
“In general, there’s a culture at Google where people were afraid to talk to HR — and in many cases for good reason,” Liz Fong-Jones, a former Google engineer and activist on internal company issues who said she faced retaliation for her activism, told Recode.
https://www.vox.com/recode/2019/9/9/20853647/google-employee-retaliation-harassment-me-too-exclusive
- What Tech Leaders Really Want
- Government Orders Google: Let Employees Speak Out
The NLRB’s settlement comes in response to a pair of complaints about Google’s reaction to workplace dissent. The settlement orders Google to inform current employees that they are free to speak to the media—without having to ask Google higher-ups for permission—on topics such as workplace diversity and compensation, regardless of whether Google views such topics as inappropriate for the workplace.
The settlement was approved by an agency director this week, according to a document. It is slated to go into effect after an appeals period.
The NLRB action is the second formal reminder to Google in a week to stay within the law. Last week, Google’s YouTube unit settled an investigation into alleged violations of child-privacy law with a $170 million fine and an admonishment from regulators not to track the internet activity of children under age 13.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/government-orders-google-let-employees-speak-out-11568284582